When did it ever "lose all it's records"? Blockchains are append only, it's a very simple data structure where nothing can go wrong really, and if it does than there's no way to recover. Sounds like complete FUD, or something that happened before it was even released during the test phase.
The network has never been hacked and this can be proven mathematically. Fake news media likes to make that claim, when in reality the problem is people who put their coins on exchanges, which is exactly like storing your gold in someone else's safe, depositing cash into a bank, store your car in your enemy's garage or put your coins in someone else's wallet.
I understand we are told its totally decentralized
It is, here you can see all the nodes in real time, online and offline as well as historical data. Bitcoin node software runs on port 8333, check it with nmap, ping or your favorite network scanner software. Do a whois lookup on the ip's and notice how it's all different isp's and in most cases residential ip's.
but there is no way that can be secure
This is why miners exist, miners are competing trying to verify the next block, in Bitcoin this takes roughly 10 minutes. A block contains all the transactions that happened in the network recently.
Mining is a process of computing checksum trying to solve a complex mathematical problem, first one to solve it wins and gets to append the block to the chain, the winner is also rewarded some BTC which means more people will mine trying to compete for this reward. The more miners, the more secure the network is, nobody trusts, everyone verifies.
Maybe thats just me but I do not see how anything can be secure that way.
Until year 2008 there was no known way to secure such system. Bitcoin is the first software which successfully solved that problem which cryptographers and mathematicians has been struggling with for decades.
Viruses and hacks from hackers and governments are crazy on torrent.
Torrents is a different technology, partially decentralized as it still relies on centralized tracking servers. Also, it's impossible to censor torrents, a file is a file, it is what it is. Torrents can make sure nobody secretly replaces your file with a virus, but if it's malware you're downloading torrents have no way to protect you. Bitcoin handles only transactions, hence impossible to embed or distribute malware through it.
Maybe its just my paranoia. But all I see is a wild pig trap, if your familiar with that analogy.
The Bitcoin network operates by consensus, sure anyone could try to upload something bad to the chain, anyone could try to double spend, anyone could try to change the rules. But to successfully do that you need majority support across the network. This was a legit threat in the beginning when the network was still small, but nowadays it's too big for that sort of fuckery to gain any traction.
Bitcoins current hashrate is 280 EHash/s, that's E as in exa 2¹⁸ hashes computed per second. For comparison, a AMD EPYC cpu (64 cores, top of the line) does maybe 10Mhash (2⁶) per second. A good GPU can do maybe 200Mhash per second. A $3000 ASIC miner can do 20Thash per second (2¹²). You need at least 15 million of those to even get close in succession of performing any form of reasonable attack against the Bitcoin network.
That's a $50 billion investment. Each of those consumes about 2kW of power, you right now you'll need about 30GW of power too. That's 30 huge nuclear reactors. Then you need cooling, a secure facility, lot's of staff, months of time to manufacture the devices, probably your own chip factory too...
Can the US government, CIA and NSA do it, absolutely. It'll take them a couple of years to get it all up and running, but it's doable. And once they do, they can finally delay some transactions by 10 minutes, that's all they can do with that amount of computation power.
That said, current block reward is 6.25BTC, if the government installed such huge facility they could make 37.5/2 = 18.75 BTC per hour. That's a profit of $4.4M per hour, or $0.32B per month, assuming they don't fuck up and destroy the network which of course would crash the valuation temporary.
Also, if they do build such facility and decides to fuck around, the network could easily agree to switch to a different algorithm, say scrypt for instance, and suddenly, just like that by the push of a button all the SHA256 ASIC's are rendered obsolete.
This has actually been done in the past with forks like Bcash, BSV, BCH and "Bitcoin gold", tho those haven't gained traction, mostly because existing SHA256 miners are more interested in profit than fucking around ruining the network.
The fact that its on the NY stock exchange mean someone has control. That with my lockpicking experience I simply dont believe in anything but security theater.
Even if its totally secure I dont see how the government can be kept out. 30 years ago it was laughable that the government could monitor every phone call. Now its well known.
Mt Gox was a centralized exchange, the first to exist in fact. Basically a lot of people putting their coins into someone else's wallet. For "convenient" exchanges to and from fiat instead of exchanging directly or buying consumer goods directly.
Mt Gox got hacked, it was a poorly written website full of security hole, just like any bank. Their wallet keys where leaked and soon the hackers had all the coins. Because this happened early on the impact on price was pretty big. From $100 to $1100 then down to $200.
The fact that its on the NY stock exchange mean someone has control.
Nowadays everything is listed on the stock exchanges, they even have "futures markets" where buy buy a virtual version of the asset, not even a real thing. If you lose you go into severe debt, if you win you make a shitload of money. It's the peak of rigged markets and the reason why house prices are so insanely high right now, why gold and silver isn't going up as fast as Bitcoin even tho they should.
Even if its totally secure I dont see how the government can be kept out.
The key is control. The phone system may have been private, but it was always centralized, hence always possible to listen to every call. The government can easily infiltrate such business and force them to spy or give the government access.
With Bitcoin you are in control, you hold your own keys and the only way the government could mess with you is by physically arrest you then maybe torture you until you give up the key. They could also torture you until you tell them where you hide your gold, so it's about the same level of security.
That said, if you put your coins in someone else's wallet, or your gold in someone else's vault, you no longer have control.
Mt Gox is long gone, bankrupt, owners sued, although they still had a pretty huge stash of Bitcoin which they have paid fines years after the collapse, after the value went up. Everyone got fully compensated for their loss, tho in fiat so they missed out on their crypto gains.
Exchanges is, and will always be a weak spot, just like banks. This is why people say "not your keys, not your coins". Only keep on exchange what you can afford to lose, and don't keep it there for long.
There's always been ways to use Bitcoin, even without internet, or connectivity in general. Out of all systems online that can fail, Bitcoin will be the last thing to go offline. People have made transaction over satellite, CB radio, wifi, bluetooth, nfc and all kinds of alternative protocols. In a recent power outage I supplied power to the modem via a battery and managed to send and receive crypto that way, even tho DNS and all centralized services where unreachable.
But in general, there should always be offline alternatives. And that's the good thing about Bitcoin, because it's market valued it's perfect for barter with gold, silver or any other items, just like you would barter with gild, silver, bullets, cigarettes or eggs in a SHTF situation. It will help establish a barter economy. Fiat on the other hand could never do that. It'll just crash and then you'll be back using bullet,s gold, silver, cigarettes and eggs anyway, assuming the society isn't falling into complete chaos as people panics when they don't know what to do.
When did it ever "lose all it's records"? Blockchains are append only, it's a very simple data structure where nothing can go wrong really, and if it does than there's no way to recover. Sounds like complete FUD, or something that happened before it was even released during the test phase.
The network has never been hacked and this can be proven mathematically. Fake news media likes to make that claim, when in reality the problem is people who put their coins on exchanges, which is exactly like storing your gold in someone else's safe, depositing cash into a bank, store your car in your enemy's garage or put your coins in someone else's wallet.
It is, here you can see all the nodes in real time, online and offline as well as historical data. Bitcoin node software runs on port 8333, check it with nmap, ping or your favorite network scanner software. Do a whois lookup on the ip's and notice how it's all different isp's and in most cases residential ip's.
This is why miners exist, miners are competing trying to verify the next block, in Bitcoin this takes roughly 10 minutes. A block contains all the transactions that happened in the network recently.
Mining is a process of computing checksum trying to solve a complex mathematical problem, first one to solve it wins and gets to append the block to the chain, the winner is also rewarded some BTC which means more people will mine trying to compete for this reward. The more miners, the more secure the network is, nobody trusts, everyone verifies.
Until year 2008 there was no known way to secure such system. Bitcoin is the first software which successfully solved that problem which cryptographers and mathematicians has been struggling with for decades.
Torrents is a different technology, partially decentralized as it still relies on centralized tracking servers. Also, it's impossible to censor torrents, a file is a file, it is what it is. Torrents can make sure nobody secretly replaces your file with a virus, but if it's malware you're downloading torrents have no way to protect you. Bitcoin handles only transactions, hence impossible to embed or distribute malware through it.
The Bitcoin network operates by consensus, sure anyone could try to upload something bad to the chain, anyone could try to double spend, anyone could try to change the rules. But to successfully do that you need majority support across the network. This was a legit threat in the beginning when the network was still small, but nowadays it's too big for that sort of fuckery to gain any traction.
Bitcoins current hashrate is 280 EHash/s, that's E as in exa 2¹⁸ hashes computed per second. For comparison, a AMD EPYC cpu (64 cores, top of the line) does maybe 10Mhash (2⁶) per second. A good GPU can do maybe 200Mhash per second. A $3000 ASIC miner can do 20Thash per second (2¹²). You need at least 15 million of those to even get close in succession of performing any form of reasonable attack against the Bitcoin network.
That's a $50 billion investment. Each of those consumes about 2kW of power, you right now you'll need about 30GW of power too. That's 30 huge nuclear reactors. Then you need cooling, a secure facility, lot's of staff, months of time to manufacture the devices, probably your own chip factory too...
Can the US government, CIA and NSA do it, absolutely. It'll take them a couple of years to get it all up and running, but it's doable. And once they do, they can finally delay some transactions by 10 minutes, that's all they can do with that amount of computation power.
That said, current block reward is 6.25BTC, if the government installed such huge facility they could make 37.5/2 = 18.75 BTC per hour. That's a profit of $4.4M per hour, or $0.32B per month, assuming they don't fuck up and destroy the network which of course would crash the valuation temporary.
Also, if they do build such facility and decides to fuck around, the network could easily agree to switch to a different algorithm, say scrypt for instance, and suddenly, just like that by the push of a button all the SHA256 ASIC's are rendered obsolete.
This has actually been done in the past with forks like Bcash, BSV, BCH and "Bitcoin gold", tho those haven't gained traction, mostly because existing SHA256 miners are more interested in profit than fucking around ruining the network.
Thank you for your great explanation of the system.
I remember the crash of bitcoin but the best I can find for documentation is here, maybe the Mt Gox hack.
The fact that its on the NY stock exchange mean someone has control. That with my lockpicking experience I simply dont believe in anything but security theater.
Even if its totally secure I dont see how the government can be kept out. 30 years ago it was laughable that the government could monitor every phone call. Now its well known.
Mt Gox was a centralized exchange, the first to exist in fact. Basically a lot of people putting their coins into someone else's wallet. For "convenient" exchanges to and from fiat instead of exchanging directly or buying consumer goods directly.
Mt Gox got hacked, it was a poorly written website full of security hole, just like any bank. Their wallet keys where leaked and soon the hackers had all the coins. Because this happened early on the impact on price was pretty big. From $100 to $1100 then down to $200.
Nowadays everything is listed on the stock exchanges, they even have "futures markets" where buy buy a virtual version of the asset, not even a real thing. If you lose you go into severe debt, if you win you make a shitload of money. It's the peak of rigged markets and the reason why house prices are so insanely high right now, why gold and silver isn't going up as fast as Bitcoin even tho they should.
The key is control. The phone system may have been private, but it was always centralized, hence always possible to listen to every call. The government can easily infiltrate such business and force them to spy or give the government access.
With Bitcoin you are in control, you hold your own keys and the only way the government could mess with you is by physically arrest you then maybe torture you until you give up the key. They could also torture you until you tell them where you hide your gold, so it's about the same level of security.
That said, if you put your coins in someone else's wallet, or your gold in someone else's vault, you no longer have control.
The Mt Gox weakness has been fixed? Or are exchanges still a weak spot? Is there a plan for lost internet?
Mt Gox is long gone, bankrupt, owners sued, although they still had a pretty huge stash of Bitcoin which they have paid fines years after the collapse, after the value went up. Everyone got fully compensated for their loss, tho in fiat so they missed out on their crypto gains.
Exchanges is, and will always be a weak spot, just like banks. This is why people say "not your keys, not your coins". Only keep on exchange what you can afford to lose, and don't keep it there for long.
There's always been ways to use Bitcoin, even without internet, or connectivity in general. Out of all systems online that can fail, Bitcoin will be the last thing to go offline. People have made transaction over satellite, CB radio, wifi, bluetooth, nfc and all kinds of alternative protocols. In a recent power outage I supplied power to the modem via a battery and managed to send and receive crypto that way, even tho DNS and all centralized services where unreachable.
But in general, there should always be offline alternatives. And that's the good thing about Bitcoin, because it's market valued it's perfect for barter with gold, silver or any other items, just like you would barter with gild, silver, bullets, cigarettes or eggs in a SHTF situation. It will help establish a barter economy. Fiat on the other hand could never do that. It'll just crash and then you'll be back using bullet,s gold, silver, cigarettes and eggs anyway, assuming the society isn't falling into complete chaos as people panics when they don't know what to do.